Bath

Bath is the largest city in Somerset, England, located in the valley of the River Avon, 97 miles west of London and 11 miles southeast of Bristol. The city's founding myth states that the Brythonic prince Bladud, who had been forced to work as a swineherd due to his leprosy, came across a patch of bubbling ground while leading his herd. The pigs in his herd were instantly cured of their own afflictions by the mineral water, so Bladud himself bathed in the water and found his leprosy cured as well. Bladud went on to inform other Britons of the spring's magical powers, causing the Britons to establish a shrine to their goddess of healing, Sulis, at the site. From 60 to 70 AD, the Roman colonists in Britannia built a temple to their goddess Minerva at the site of the Britons' temple, and they created the settlement of Aquae Sulis, which included public baths and a temple which honored the syncretic deity Sulis Minerva. The Romans abandoned Britannia in 410 AD, and the baths fell into disrepair. Wessex captured the town from the Britons following the 577 Battle of Deorham, and a monastery was founded in 675. By the 9th century, the Roman street pattern was lost and Bath had become a royal possession, and, in 973, Bath Abbey was the site of King Edgar of England's coronation. During Norman rule, Prince William Rufus granted Bath to the royal physician John of Tours, having recaptured the town following a failed 1088 uprising. John founded the Bishopric of Bath and Wells, and he also expanded the abbey. In 1200, the first mayor was appointed, and the first city guildhall was built in that same century. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, Bath returned to popularity as a spa town, and it was the site of the 1643 Battle of Lansdowne during the English Civil War. The city experienced a resurgence in popularity due to royal visits to the city's baths in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and much of the modern city consists of cream-colored Georgian houses. From 1936 to 1940, Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie lived in exile in Bath, and, from 25 to 27 April 1942, 400 people were killed and 19,000 buildings damaged or destroyed during World War II German Luftwaffe bombing raids. During the 1950s, council housing was built in the city, and new historical conservation efforts were initiated during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2011, Bath had a population of 88,859 people.